Araria votes in Phase 2 on November 11, with counting on November 14.

This one seat in north Bihar has turned into a micro-referendum on everything from credibility to caste calculus.

The Congress has held the assembly seat since 2015, but in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s Pradeep Kumar Singh snatched the Araria parliamentary seat by a margin of roughly 20,000 votes. That single shift put a red circle on the constituency for every poll strategist in Patna.

On one side stands Abidur Rahman, Congress loyalist and two-term MLA, who has held the seat since 2015. Across him, Shagufta Azim of JD(U), Nitish Kumar’s pick to reclaim Seemanchal’s lost ground. And then comes the wild card: Shivdeep Wamanrao Lande, the former IPS officer once hailed as 'Bihar’s Singham', now stepping into poli

See Full Page